MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF COMMUNICATIONS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 29, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was the Pope's message for the 33rd World Day of Communications which will be held on May 16. The theme of the Day is "Mass Media: a Friendly Companion for Those in Search of the Father."

In the message dated January 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists, the Holy Father writes that the theme of the day "implies two questions: how might the media work with God rather than against him? And how might the media be a friendly companion to those searching for God's loving presence in their lives? ... Finally the theme implies an invitation and a hope: that those responsible for the world of social communications will be ever more committed to help rather than hinder the search for meaning which is at the very heart of human life."

John Paul II states that the theme "recognizes the exceptional influence of the media in contemporary culture, and therefore the media's special responsibility to witness to the truth about life, about human dignity, about the true meaning of our freedom and mutual interdependence."

Greater cooperation between the Church and the media can help "to serve the men and women of our time in their search for meaning and fulfillment." For example, "the Church's culture of remembrance can save the media culture of transitory 'news' from becoming a forgetfulness which corrodes real hope; and the media can help the Church to proclaim the Gospel in all its enduring freshness. ... The Church's culture of wisdom can save the media culture of information from becoming a meaningless accumulation of facts; and the media can help the Church's wisdom to remain alert to the array of new knowledge now emerging."

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